Our Coaches

Grace started calisthenics when she was two and has enjoyed it ever since. Having represented the ACT in 2004, Grace has also competed in solo, graceful and duo items throughout her 16 years as a competitor.

Starting her cadetting the moment she could at the age of 12, with her mum (Kerry Sargent-Cox – past Principal Coach of Brindabella and Adjudicator) who has been a huge inspiration to her, Grace loved cadetting and achieved her Level 1 accreditation in 2011. Throughout Grace’s time as a coach she has many memorable moments including her soloists and teams achieving high placings throughout her years of coaching.

Grace loves to watch the participants develop and be able to achieve something that they have been working hard to get. Coaching inspires her to achieve better results within herself and to continue to help participant’s progress and develop.

Grace has been involved with coaching the ACT Junior Representative teams from 2012-2014, and was Assistant Coach for the ACT Junior Representative team once again in 2017.

Grace absolutely adores teaching, and is challenging herself with coaching our Masters team. She loves the fun and team camaraderie and loves working with the awesome coaching team.

Leanne Altinger – Principal Coach

Leanne has been passionate about calisthenics since she started competing at the age of 5. Leanne’s competitive years included working as a Missie (Tinie), right through to the Senior age group which she only retired from in recent years. She was also selected as an Intermediate and Senior ACT Representative, both at team level and also as a Senior Graceful Soloist.

Leanne has been coaching since the age of 13 and her coaching career includes the 1996 Junior and 1998 Intermediate ACT Representative teams. She has also coached a Senior to Nationals for Graceful Solo.

In 1997 Leanne, along with Kerry Sargent-Cox, Lee Hamlyn and Donna Sullivan, created Brindabella Calisthenics College. Although Leanne isn’t currently coaching a team at Brindabella, she is still passionate about mentoring the young coaches and is extremely proud of the calibre of coaches that they have nurtured throughout the years and will continue to do so in years to come.

Leanne’s daughters have inherited her enthusiasm for calisthenics and are both competitive members of the club. Leanne also has a son, Ryan, who chooses to admire the sport from afar.

A highlight in Leanne’s coaching career was being awarded the 2007 ACT Coach of Year.

Donna began calisthenics as a 6 year old in the early 80s.
Donna quotes “Mum put me into the sport as she thought I was a bit chubby…ah ha ha. Thing is I am still doing it 30 years later, and still a bit chubby! I guess that is where my love of our sport and performing developed. I then went on to perform in teams across all of the existing age groups.”

She started coaching back in the very early 90s and also spent some time with a junior Team at Chellor calisthenics as a cadet (if we called it that then) and was in charge of warm up and helping out in the class.
It wasn’t long after that that Donna was thrown in to a Sub-Junior team with another young coach. They had a combination of Tinies (then called missies) and sub-juniors making up our little squad. After learning a lot on the job it was around this time that Level 1 courses for coaching were offered here in Canberra for the first time. Donna successfully achieved her Lvl 1 and has been a Level 1 qualified coach ever since.

Donna has taught all age groups from Tinies to Seniors at club level and was been honoured to coach the Intermediate Rep Team in 1998 with her participant friends and fellow coaches. Which in Donna’s words “was a blast!!”
Donna has also coached soloists from all age groups. I love coaching in this forum to offer a child one on one development. Since having my own children though I haven’t taken on Solo’s for a while. However watch this space for future changes…

Her love of teaching others led Donna to study education and move into teaching as a career. She has also used skills learnt through calisthenics to work with students in her job on a daily basis. A knowledge of performance, rehearsal and commitment has seen her work wonders with high school students in dance festivals, rock eisteddfods etc.
Donna is excited to be coaching the Junior team this year, and enjoys being able to apply her skills to music and creative choreography.

Donna would like to offer the following words:
“Calisthenics is certainly a unique sport, but one that can offer the participant so much, including a large group of life long friends. Calisthenics has been a strong directional force in my life to date…and so it continues to be.”

Alex competed in calisthenics for over 20 years and is now just coaching. She started her calisthenics career at Chellor Calisthenics, competing with them for 5 years. When Chellor Calisthenics Club folded she was part of the first Brindabella Sub-Junior team in 1997. Alex competed as a soloist every year from 1997 to 2009 and represented BCC and the ACT as a graceful soloist at the National Championships in 2008 and 2009. She has also been part of the ACT representative teams: 1997 ACT Sub Junior Team, 2000 ACT Junior Team (first ACT team to win closed division), 2003, 2004 ACT Intermediate Team and the 2007 ACT Senior Team.

Alex has been coaching and cadetting with Brindabella for over 10 years and received her level 1 coaching accreditation in 2008. She has worked with the BCC Sub-Juniors, Juniors, Intermediates and Seniors teams. She has also taught many solos, gracefuls and duos, and loves to see the improvement in her soloists each year!

Some of Alex’s coaching highlights have been her intermediate team winning Division 4 at Ballarat in 2011, winning the Langdon award in 2013, her junior team winning Divsion 5 at Ballarat in 2013, one of her senior graceful girls winning the ACT solo championship and representing ACT at both Nationals and Ballarat in 2013, and her senior team winning the ACT Championship and runners up in Ballarat Div 3 in 2014.

Alex’s favourite item is aesthetics. She loves aesthetics for the softness, the grace and the emotion that can be portrayed through beautiful movements. She also loves the fancies as the participants get to let loose and have lots of fun.

Ashleigh began participating in Calisthenics at the age of 10 and started competing in solo competitions at the age of 11. In 2009 Ashleigh was selected to compete at the National Championships as a Graceful Soloist, and has also represented the ACT in the Intermediate and Senior teams in 2008 and 2011.

Coaching was something Ashleigh has always seen herself doing, ever since she started with the club. Starting her cadetship in 2007, Ashleigh has continued coaching every year since. Spending one year with the Sub-juniors then moving on to the Junior age group and now Tinies.

Ashleigh received her accreditation as a Level 1 coach in 2011 and is also very proud to coach a mixture of calisthenics soloists, graceful girls and duos.